You Said, We Did! (Players)
We have been collating the comments from the recent FA/AFA survey which was available to all AFA stakeholders, players, referees, coaches and club & l
In the interests of transparency, we intend to answer the negative comments from each group over the next two weeks. Today, we start with the players...
“Coaching Courses are always based in North London”
It’s correct to say that we do hold a number of courses north of the river, mainly to accommodate our two youth leagues, who are based there and require a steady stream of Level 1 coaches. We have in the past staged both Level 1 and Level 2 courses in the south (Old Salesians, Bromleians, Bank of England and Herne Hill) but these have not proved as popular and a number had to be cancelled. We are formulating our Coaching Course programme for the second half of the year and we will include south of the river venues.
“Better quality pitches are required”
We fully understand that a decent pitch to play on is vital so, we introduced the FA Pitch Improvement Scheme last year and a total of 82 AFA pitches have received a visit from an Institute of Groundsman representative. All clubs found this useful and a number have since purchased grounds machinery via the AFA. We will revisit this and communicate to clubs how they can improve their pitches via the scheme.
“Not enough information on facility funding”
Funding information can be found by clicking here. Again, we will ensure that this is communicated better to all AFA clubs and leagues.
“The AFA are just in it to make money”
This couldn’t be further from the truth; we are in it to provide football for all as inexpensively as possible. There are rules, regulations and sanctions around responding to County FA communications, which the bulk of our clubs happily adhere to. The Whole Game System has enabled clubs to administrate their affairs more promptly and subsequently a large percentage of clubs have never been issued with a late fine. We will run Whole Game Workshops to enable clubs to be fully competent with the system.
“Coaching Courses are always based in North London”
It’s correct to say that we do hold a number of courses north of the river, mainly to accommodate our two youth leagues, who are based there and require a steady stream of Level 1 coaches. We have in the past staged both Level 1 and Level 2 courses in the south (Old Salesians, Bromleians, Bank of England and Herne Hill) but these have not proved as popular and a number had to be cancelled. We are formulating our Coaching Course programme for the second half of the year and we will include south of the river venues.
“Better quality pitches are required”
We fully understand that a decent pitch to play on is vital so, we introduced the FA Pitch Improvement Scheme last year and a total of 82 AFA pitches have received a visit from an Institute of Groundsman representative. All clubs found this useful and a number have since purchased grounds machinery via the AFA. We will revisit this and communicate to clubs how they can improve their pitches via the scheme.
“Not enough information on facility funding”
Funding information can be found by clicking here. Again, we will ensure that this is communicated better to all AFA clubs and leagues.
“The AFA are just in it to make money”
This couldn’t be further from the truth; we are in it to provide football for all as inexpensively as possible. There are rules, regulations and sanctions around responding to County FA communications, which the bulk of our clubs happily adhere to. The Whole Game System has enabled clubs to administrate their affairs more promptly and subsequently a large percentage of clubs have never been issued with a late fine. We will run Whole Game Workshops to enable clubs to be fully competent with the system.
